chapters, the present
chapter being a general survey of an introductory character.

The permeation of Westernism is naturally most advanced in those parts
of Islam which have been longest under Western political control. The
penetration of the British "Raj" into the remotest Indian jungles, for
example, is an extraordinary phenomenon. By the coinage, the
post-office, the railroads, the administration of justice, the
encouragement of education, the relief of famine, and a thousand other
ways, the great organization has penetrated all India. But even in
regions where European control is still nominal, the permeation of
Westernism has gone on apace. The customs and habits of the people have
been distinctly modified. Western material improvements and comforts
like the kerosene-oil lamp and the sewing-machine are to-day part and
parcel of the daily life of the people. New economic wants have been
created; standards of living have been raised; canons of taste have been
altered.[73]

In the intellectual and spiritual fields, likewise, the leaven of
Westernism is clearly apparent. We have already seen how profoundly
Moslem liberal reformers have been influenced by Western ideas and the
spirit of Western progress. Of course in these fields Westernism has
progressed more slowly and has awakened much stronger opposition than it
has on the material plane. Material innovations, especially mechanical
improvements, comforts, and luxuries, make their way much faster than
novel customs or ideas, which usually shock established beliefs or
ancestral prejudices. Tobacco was taken up with extraordinary rapidity
by every race and clime, and the kerosene-lamp has in half a century
penetrated the recesses of Central Asia and of China; whereas customs
like Western dress and ideas like Western education encounter many
setbacks and are often adopted with such modifications that their
original spirit is denatured or perverted. The superior strength and
skill of the West are to-day generally admitted throughout the East, but
in many quarters the first receptivity to Western progress and zeal for
Western ideas have cooled or have actually given place to a reactionary
hatred of the very spirit of Western civilization.[74]

Western influences are most apparent in the upper and middle classes,
especially in the Western-educated _intelligentsia_ which to-day exists
in every Eastern land. These elites of course vary greatly in numbers
and influence, b